"AI for Green" - Utilizing AI to Address Environmental Challenges

The national Austrian funding scheme “AI for Green” supports the development of research-intensive technology in the field of artificial intelligence. To receive funding, the application fields of research projects need to include both the areas of environmental, climate, nature and species protection (mitigation) and the adaptation to the consequences of climate change (adaptation). The approaches and methods that are researched within the funding scheme must make a concrete contribution to achieving Austria’s climate goals by 2040 at the latest and contribute to solving ecological challenges. “AI for Green” aims to connect the expertise of the climate/environmental research community and the expertise of the AI community. The first call for tenders was conducted in 2021. Eligible projects could last up until three years and needed to apply for funding between 100.000€ and 2.000.000€. In the first call, the technology focus areas to be addressed, researched and further developed by the R&D projects were:

1. Adaptable AI models and situational learning
2. Trustworthy AI: explanatory models for algorithms and predictions
3. Data and data ecosystems
4. Large-scale simulations
5. Federated learning

Details of the funding scheme can be found here (in German): https://www.ffg.at/ai

Fostering the development of Trustworthy AI The responsible use of AI enables the technology to be used for the benefit of society and has the potential to become a significant international competitive advantage for Austrian companies, especially in manufacturing. For achieving that, it is necessary to further develop and promote the international standardisation of AI. Together, the Austria Wirtschaftsservice (aws) and the Platform Industry 4.0 Austria (PIA) are supporting domestic Austrian companies in the development of trustworthy AI norms and standards with a specific module as part of the “aws Digitalisation – Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence” funding scheme. The aim of the cooperation between aws and PIA is to enable Austrian companies to participate in standardisation bodies such as ISO, Austrian Standards or the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and to support them through providing relevant content. Details of the initiative can be found here (in German): https://plattformindustrie40.at/services/#vertrauen